An Easter Message From Dean Owens
I’ll tell a little secret of ministry: we don’t write our easter sermons on the day of resurrection itself. That would be great, of course, to journey through the emotional rollercoaster and loss of Holy Week and then to sit beside the tomb and wait not only for resurrection, but for the inspiration to proclaim it.
The reality is that because most of like to do a bit of actual preparation before stepping into the pulpit, we clergy must find a way to divide ourselves during Holy Week; we must fully engage with our hearts and our minds the stories of Jesus’s passion and trial, his love for his friends, the betrayal of those he loves, and the agony of his death on a cross, yet at the same time we also reach past that those trials to find the sparks of joy that come with Easter morning and the promise of resurrection.
To live faithfully, though, is to hold both realities at much the same time. The challenges and hardships of life are real, the violence and injustice of this world cannot be waved away with a good holiday, and the feelings of loss and alienation that we often feel are a part of being human. Yet joy is every bit as real, new life is the way of God’s presence in the world, and love is a force that is far stronger than death. This is the gift of Easter, this joy that does not exist apart from the death and suffering of Good Friday.
Richard Rohr reminds us that through Christ’s resurrection, God shows us that all of creation is moving not towards death and destruction, but towards greater life. That movement takes us through the valley of death and moments where we feel all is lost, but then, thanks be to God, we come out the other side to new ways of seeing, knowing, living, and loving. He writes,
Resurrection offers us a future – dare I say a permanent future – that is unknown and scary. Humans find it easier to gather their energy around death, pain, and problems than around joy.[i]
Perhaps that is because the path to true joy is the one we walk in Holy Week. Yet when we find that joy, with the bright morning and the empty tomb and the inner awareness that everything has changed, we see the gift for what it is: the life-changing realization that God’s world moves not towards endings and loss, but new beginnings and new hope.
May Easter bring you hope, may the resurrection of Jesus bring you joy, and may that joy give you a heart to know the new things God is doing with us all!